Thai / Myanmar Border

Any land crossings into Myanmar require you to have your visa already in your passport; e-visas are not valid. Your Passport must be valid for at least another six months on your day of entry into Myanmar. Check out the Thailand articles section for information on getting a Myanmar visa in Thailand and visa runs. NOTE: Myanmar time is minus 30 mins (UTC +6:30) of Thailand (UTC +7:00). Border 4 - Ranong (Thailand) / Kawthaung (Mynamar) – Open 7:00am to 5:00pm With your visa already in your passport there are no charges for just going through the border. You are permitted to go through the border without a visa and spend up to 2 weeks in the Kawthaung. To do this you just leave your passport with them at the border and pay US $10 (you may be asked for a photocopy of your passport). Even though there are signs saying no visa runs it seems to still be going on. Pon’s place offers them and it seems you can do them independently, best to ask around before you do this though. To make the crossing the Thai immigration office is at Saphan Pla Jetty just off the main road. You can catch songthaews (3 and 6) from Ranong bound for Pan Nam Ranong for 20B. It’s then a 25 minute longtail boat ride across the Kra Buri Estuary for 100B per person. There’s plenty of boats around and they leave when they have at least 4 people. Or you can hire your own boat for around 500B. The boats stop at a Thai checkpoint in the water but you don’t need to do anything. Once you get to the Myanmar immigration the boat driver will take your passport to pass to them. Kawthaung’s port will have tuk tuk drivers ready to drive you to your chosen destination and they will wait outside the immigration office to get your stamp. It’s 20B to any hotel in town. Kawthaung has an airport with daily flights to Yangon.